Registration

HumanSurge seeks to offer its basic services to each humanitarian professional free
of charge. We are also committed to keeping this basic package (eg. all services on
offer today) free for professionals in future.

HumanSurge charges a fee to organizations as part of a sustainable social business
model. This will enable us to continue providing the service in an independent,
transparent and accountable manner, as well as allow us to expand functionalities
according to identified needs. The fee currently depends primarily on the scope of
profiles an organization seeks to access, which is generally categorized as either
national or international profiles.

HumanSurge has specific terms and conditions for professionals and organizations. The
terms and conditions outline the relationship, rights and obligations of each party.
During the registration process, you are asked to read and accept the terms and
conditions specific to your type of registration (eg. professional or organization).
HumanSurge recommends that you read these terms and conditions.

Yes. HumanSurge is an open platform for all humanitarian professionals. Anyone with
experience and skills relevant to the sector is welcome to register. In fact, we
encourage you to share the website (humansurge.org) with your colleagues and peers
by email or on social media.

Profiles

HumanSurge has consulted with many senior HR recruiters to identify the core
characteristics when looking for qualified professionals, upon which a first
selection or shortlist is made. When registering, HumanSurge primarily requests
profile input as a standardized set of core characteristics - making registration
quick and easy!
However, we recognize that every professional is unique. By logging into your
profile, you can edit and add many more profile specifics, such as key
qualifications, the employers you worked for, details about your main study, if you
are on a roster, etc. We encourage you to complete your profile. The more
information you provide, the more likely it is you will be shortlisted and
contacted.

Your current geographic location (at country/territory level only) may be of interest
to recruiting organizations during an emergency. If you are already located near a
disaster-affected area, it implies a shorter deployment time and greater contextual
knowledge, increasing your chances of being shortlisted.
Moreover, your nationality and current geographic location make you visible to
organizations opting for a LITE package within that country/territory, as they can
only see and contact profiles from one particular country/territory. This means that
non-nationals currently located in a foreign country are also visible to
organizations recruiting within their geographic location (whether these are
national organizations or country-offices of international organizations or
agencies).

We recommend you do. The more details you provide about the various jobs and
assignments (period, locations, and context), the more accurately your profile can
be classified. Recruiters are particularly interested in your experiences: the total
time deployed in emergency or early-recovery/rehabilitation contexts respectively,
the countries or territories in which you worked, the position you held, etc. Hence,
the more details you provide, the more likely it is that you will be shortlisted and
contacted.
HumanSurge calculates the total time deployed in emergency and
early-recovery/rehabilitation contexts. This number is contrasted with the
self-reported number of years of relevant experience and should not reveal major
discrepancies.

Yes. After your initial registration you can edit your profile. There is ample
opportunity to provide more details, such as adding key qualifications, a second
nationality, adding more languages, and many more.

Organizations are mainly interested to know if you are fully operational (proficient)
in a particular language. Therefore, you should only list a language that you read,
write and speak sufficiently to perform all the tasks required in your profile /
position in that language. Although it is nice to have some basic knowledge or a
certain language, and it may help in situations, this is not crucial information.
You can still mention it at a later stage, after being contacted, or in the elevator
pitch if you believe it is important enough in your particular situation.

HumanSurge is still in beta and capturing only key information. In future, we may add
the option to register your main trainings. For the moment, we recommend that you
list them under your key qualifications and other skills (Go to ´Profile´ to
add).

Each person is unique, with specific skills, preferences and a personal situation.
Fortunately, no standard questions can ever hope to capture your individuality.
At the same time, these specifics are important to who you are. Sharing these
specifics in a few sentences will ensure that a recruiter understands better who you
are and what you are looking for, so that organizations only contact you if they
have something that is really of your interest. A win-win situation.
The elevator pitch option lets you add a personal note and stand out from the crowd.

Preferences

HumanSurge placed the humanitarian professional at the center. Any experienced and
qualified professional has a clear picture of what s/he wants or does not want. By
stating these preferences, this also becomes clear to the recruiters, thereby
increasing the likelihood of a successful contact, while avoiding the need for a
professional to ´say no´ to an organization.

Preferences to indicate (will) include:
Time required to deploy; Maximum period willing to deploy; Country or region of
work; Any ´no-go´ countries; Type of contract (employee or service contract);
Preferences for any organization; Disposition to work with a religious-affiliated
organization (note: we do not ask for, and advice against, the identification of
your religion through the HumanSurge platform)

Availability and response times

Time is key in an emergency.
HumanSurge seeks to reduce recruitment times and costs by bringing available
qualified professionals in contact with responding organizations. In order to avoid
losing valuable time you should keep your availability status up-to-date.
HumanSurge will display the last day you confirmed your availability in the search
results. Those who most recently confirmed will be listed higher. Someone who
confirmed yesterday or last week, is more likely to actually be available, than
someone who confirmed a month ago. Hence, recruiters are likely to contact those
qualifying candidates who most recently confirmed availability, increasing the
likelihood of a successful contact.
In your personal settings, you will be able to specify the frequency with which you
want to (re)confirm your availability. HumanSurge will then send an email at the set
interval and all you need to do is confirm.

In an emergency, every minute counts.
HumanSurge encourages you to respond immediately if you are contacted by an
organization. It is not important if you confirm or reject an offer. Every person
and situation is unique, and you can have good reasons for not being available
(already contacted and deployed with another organization, the position or
organization does not have your interest, any personal situation, etc.). The most
important thing is that you inform the organization immediately, so there is no time
wasted unnecessarily in finding the most suitable candidate.
HumanSurge will track response times and may report on them in future, boosting
profiles who always provide a quick feedback.

Getting contacted and contracted

An organization can contact you through the platform, based on the profile you
provided. You will receive a notice in your account and an email to the email
address you registered with on HumanSurge. The first contact will typically contain
the following information: (1) organization name, (2) position, (3) period of
deployment, and (4) location. Based on this information, you should confirm interest
or decline. When confirming, your full name and contact information will be provided
to the organization, so they may contact you and complete the recruitment process.
Also, additional information may be sent automatically, such as a complete job
description (if provided by the organization). In case you decide to decline, you
have the option to send a note to the organization, clarifying your motive for
declining. No contact information will be exchanged in that case.

Maybe.
Why maybe? Well…
No, HumanSurge does not hire, nor guarantee that any organization will contact you
or that such a contact will lead to an employment or service agreement, irrespective
of your profile or total time registered on the platform.
And yes, if your profile and availability meets the needs of any organization, they
may contact you. From that contact, you may reach a mutually satisfactory agreement
to deploy (independent of HumanSurge, we do not get involved) - in which case you
would end up with a job.

NO. And this is important. HumanSurge facilitates contact between humanitarian
responders, professionals and organizations. We do not engage in contractual
negotiations, nor consult on the matter. This process is at the sole discretion of,
and upon agreement between, the contracting parties. Professionals and organizations
are themselves fully responsible for the recruitment process, its outcome and
consequences.

NO. HumanSurge does not contract anyone for humanitarian response operations and does
not have an active field operation. It is the organization, which contacts
professionals through the platform, who may engage in an employment or service
agreement with said professional.
HumanSurge is a service provider to the humanitarian sector and consists of a small
team of dedicated humanitarians, professionals and volunteers. At this stage, we are
not recruiting.

Privacy

Your last name and contact details are only exchanged with an organization that
contacts you, and only after you confirm interest in the position on offer at that
organization.
In the search results, only your first name and profile details become visible. The
public search function is limited and does not provide full details of individual
profiles (such as the elevator pitch or experiences), nor does it list all profiles.